All posts by Miss McKay

Week beginning – 7th March

There will be no literacy or maths homework due to the Reconciliation on Wednesday Evening and Parent’s Night on Thursday. Parent’s night appointments were sent home Friday 4th March.

The pupils preparing for their Sacrament of Reconciliation should be practising their Act of Sorrow and Confiteor regularly. They should also be discussing this Sacrament with their parents and considering the format of the Confession. Pupil practised this with Father Paul and Father Micheal today and this has been discussed regularly in class.

The Format for the Children

 Make the Sign of the Cross

 Say:     ‘Bless me Father for I have sinned. This is my First Confession.’

 Tell the Priest your sins.

 Listen – while the Priest tells you your penance and gives you absolution (Forgiveness).

 Say an Act of Contrition (Sorrow).

Oh my God, because you are so good,

I am very sorry that I have sinned against you

And I will try not to sin again.

Amen

Say – ‘Thank you, Father.’

Then go light a candle, kneel in front of Our Lady’s Altar and say your penance quietly. Once finished return to your seat, and remain quiet and attentive for the rest of the Service.  

Please remember pupils should attend the Sacrament of Reconciliation in full school uniform. Pupils will sit together on the right hand side of the church.

Mrs Robertson

Trip to the Foundry

Gallery

Primary 4a and 4B Research Trip

Listening attentively to Mary
Listening attentively to Mary

During the last two weeks, Primary 4a and 4B have both visited the Foundry. Our aim was to find out more about Vikings using non fiction books. Mary met us at the Library and told us about the dewy-decimal system which arranges the non fiction books. She also showed us how to the use the Electronic Library Catalogue to search for books which would help us with our homework. Finally she showed  us the Encyclopaedia Britannica website which was cool, it had lots of information about lots of different topics.

Then we started to complete our own Viking Fact file which gave us questions about food, money and hobbies to answer. We were able to research the Vikings using lots of different books and record the books on a Bibliography.

 

Thank you to Mary and the Foundry for having us. Also a big thank you to the Parent helpers, who walked us to and from the Foundry.

 

Miss G Mckay

Mass of Commitment

Reminder – On Sunday 21st February 2016, pupils who are making their Sacrament of Reconciliation should attend the 10am mass at St. John’s. Pupils should be in school uniform and sit with their families.

See you all there!

Miss McKay

Burn’s Celebration

On the 25th January, the school held a Burn’s Celebration to celebrate our National Baird Robert Burns. The whole school worked hard to learn poems and songs to share with the families of our school at the celebration. While Mum’s and Dad’s were treated to the pupil’s poems, songs and dances while they enjoyed shortbread and juice.

Primary 4a had worked really hard to learn The Sair Finger by Walter Wingate and performed it beautifully on the day. Some Primary 4’s then showed off their Scottish country dancing skills.

Primary 4B then recited a poem by J.K. Annand called Twa Legged Mice, a fantastic poem which we loved learning and performing.

Thank you for your help encouraging Primary 4 to learn their poems.

January 2016

After a lovely winter break, we are ready for a busy term ahead. This term Primary 4 shall be preparing for their Sacrament of Reconciliation, which is a wonderful step in their Faith Journey. Over the next few weeks we will be visiting the Church and working closely with the Parish to guide our pupils through their individual preparations.

We will also begin covering various Science topics including Sound and making instruments to further develop our knowledge of how sound and pitch works.

Our Interdisciplinary topic this term is Vikings and pupils throughout Primary 4 have responded well to this topic so far. We will be looking at various aspects of Viking life and finding out about the Vikings in Scotland.

Thank you

Miss Mckay

Here are a couple of key dates for the Primary 4 calendar

Monday 25th January 2016, Burn’s Day Celebration

Sunday 21st February 2016, P4 Mass of Commitment at St. John’s Church

Wednesday 9th March 2016, Sacrament of Reconciliation at St. John’s Church

 

Primary 4B – End of Term 1

As we come to the end of term 1, we reflect on our learning journey in Primary 4 so far.

In RERC, we have begun our preparation for our Sacrament of Reconciliation by learning about forgiveness and sharing pictures and artefacts from our baptism.

We have learned about  landscapes, rivers and places in Scotland. We have found out about castles and knights, we have discovered different jobs in the castle and made medieval bread.

In Art, we have studied Jolomo’s work and recreated his pictures. We are really looking forward to Mrs McIntrye teaching us art once more.

In PE, we have been learning about possession, passing and team work in ball games such as basketball and football.

In Science, we have been learning about the phases of the moon and also properties of materials (solids, liquids and gases). We also found out about germs and the importance of hand washing.

In ICT, we have been making video games, researching the life of a knight and making power points about Scottish Cities.

In Literacy, we have been writing recipes, stories about Indiana Jones, letters to Merlin about becoming a knight and describing our dream holidays.

In Maths, we have been developing our times table knowledge, working on adding and subtracting and answering word problems.

Next week we have a Whole school Christmas Sing a Long on Monday, our Final Advent Mass on Tuesday and our class Christmas parties.

We are looking forward to next year and we would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.

 

Primary 4B and Miss Mckay

 

Primary 4 Junior Bake Off

 

On Thursday, Primary Four made bread after receiving a letter from Queen Jessica challenged us to make medieval bread. We had to read the recipe carefully, measure the ingredients accurately using scales and work with a group.  We had to use mathematic language such as millilitres, grams and kilograms, we also know the time we put our bread in and work out what time it was to come out. 

Ornella “I enjoyed measuring the sugar.”

Daniel “I enjoyed tasting the homemade bread.”

Madox “I liked putting the sultanas through the bread.”

Lucy “I liked folding the bread because it was fun making bread with my friends.”

When our bread was ready we had a taste test in Primary 4a’s class. Mrs Fitzsimmons tasted both our bread in a blind taste test.  She enjoyed both breads, she said Primary 4a’s bread would be good with cheese and for sandwiches and Primary 4B’s bread would be good with soup or stew on a winter’s night.  

We all enjoyed the opportunity to bake bread and will be writing our bread recipes next week.

G Mckay

 

Times Tables – Homework Flashcards

We have started our focus on times tables using flashcards to promote rapid recall and accuracy of answers, this has replaced the written homework sheet. We have been using our flashcards in school and at home. Pupils are very much enjoying this active approach to practising their times table.

Games which pupils have been playing at home include:
– muddling up the times tables and answering the questions in different orders
– sticking the flashcards on the wall and splatting the correct answers
– laying out the flashcards on the floor and matching flashcards to the correct answers
– answering the answer with the question instead of the question with the answer
– competing against a friend or sibling to answer the question first

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In class, we continue to practise our times tables by exploring patterns in numbers, playing interactive games, chanting and singing our times tables.

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Primary 4b and Miss Mckay

Parent’s Night

rain

Thank you to all the parents who braved the weather last night and joined us for Parent’s night. Here are a couple of websites which you may find useful:

 

Mathematics and Numeracy

 • Number bonds and Times table practise
http://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button
http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/me3us/flash/lessonLauncher.html?lesson=lessons/08/m3_08_00_x.swf
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/starship/maths/games/cross_the_swamp/big_sound/full.shtml
http://www.arcademics.com/games/meteor/meteor.html
http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/timestable/tricks.html

Real Estate Investing: Getting Started

• Resources for shape, measure, money and more
http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/maths/
http://www.sumdog.com/

Literacy and English

• Reading, Grammar, Punctuation, Writing and Spelling resources
http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/literacy/index.htm

• Spelling
http://www.crickweb.co.uk/ks2literacy.html#alienhangman
http://www.spinandspell.com/game.swf
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/longvow/spelling/spelling.shtml

• Reading words
http://www.crickweb.co.uk/ks1literacy.html#ww2
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks2/english/reading/
http://www.topmarks.co.uk/english-games/7-11-years/reading

Thanks
Miss G Mckay